To prepare

Preheat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF, Gas mark 4). Grease a large springform cake tin and line with parchment paper – or two sandwich cake tins (whichever method you prefer).

Place all the cake ingredients into a mixing bowl. Beat using an electric mixer until all the ingredients are well combined and the batter is smooth. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour. When a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, remove cake from oven. Allow it to cool for a few moments in the tin before turning out on a cake rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, prepare the buttered rum by combining sugar, butter and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until this sauce thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. To make rum cream for the middle of your sponge, beat the cream together with about 2-3 tablespoons of the rum sauce.

Once cake is baked, remove and allow to cool slightly. Slice, if you need, then assemble your cake with cream in the middle. Use a skewer or wooden pick to prick holes all over the top of the cake. Pour about 2/3 of the buttered rum on the top and allow this to soak into your cake. Pour over the remaining sauce just before serving.

Really good bit

This cake doesn’t freeze all that well, so make certain to share it while it’s fresh (that shouldn’t be difficult).

It does, however, cook nicely in small ramekins for a personal touch. Simply pour into ramekins and reduce the baking time to about 20 minutes, until each individual cake has risen and is nicely golden on the top. Omit the cream, but feel free to go heavy on the rum sauce.

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From the notebook of Katie Schenk

Mmmm, cake. Fancy some more cake recipes before deciding what to bake? Or just fancy flicking through some cake-porn? We won’t tell – check these beauties out here: